Searching a biomedical bibliographic database from Bulgaria: the ABS database
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Updated: Jul 12, 2026
Comparing Bibliometric Analysis Using PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science Databases
Published on: October 24, 2019
Akhil Abhijnhan1, Zhenya Surcheva, Judy Wright
1Cochrane Schizophrenia Group, Division of Psychiatry, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
Background:
The University of Sofia, Bulgaria, disseminates local biomedical literature (1994 to present) through a free online database, ABS.
Objectives:
Our objectives were to systematically search ABS, identify citations to controlled trials and discover what proportion of these studies are to be found on medline.
Methods:
We searched using Bulgarian and English phrases; manually selected citations of controlled trials and sought these citations on medline.
Results:
Using the two languages, we found a total of 628 unique citations, 47 of which seem to be relevant controlled trials (precision 7.48%, 13% of ABS citations were found on medline). The trials in ABS commonly focused on evaluation of care for people with cardiovascular or urological problems.
Discussion:
ABS is another source of easily accessed trials not readily available elsewhere.
